It also depends on the design of the socket. I use CFs in my workshop
because I like the light, the fact that they turn on easily in the cold, and
the energy savings since I leave one on all the time (the switch is a real
pain to get to). One of my fixtures is an outdoor twin PAR set that I
originally used floods in. I had two different sizes of CF in the sockets.
One had a larger ballast base than the other, so that it barely fit in the
socket. It quit working the next day, so I figured that the base had been
to large and the ballast overheated and burned out. A month or so later
when I was replacing it, for the fun of it I put it into a different fixture
and it worked fine. It must have had some sort of thermal cutout that got
triggered. All in all, make sure there is plenty of air space around the
base.


"A" wrote in message news:JzNqb.334334$9l5.276400@pd7tw2no...
The book did say that ceramic sockets were ok to use with cf's. I'm
guessing your 50 year old ones are probably ceramic.

As another poster said - the cf's have gotten lighter in recent years - so
maybe the issue is no longer of concern (as long as we are using the newer
cf's).


"Edwin Pawlowski" wrote in message
. com...

"A" wrote in message news:k1Fqb.327388$pl3.158331@pd7tw3no...

Personally I've not run into any problems (yet) with my compact
flourescents - and I was wondering if anyone else has?

Fantastic book, but inaccurate on this subject.

At work I have 3 cf's in one stairwell, two in another. They have been
in
there for a minimum of 6 years in one place, maybe 9 or 10 in the other.
No
damage and only a couple of replacements. Three are on 24/7, the others
are
on a sensor.

FWIW, the light sockets are about 50 years old.
Ed